Administrative System of the Marathas c18.s29: 19. Total Revenue
Administrative System of the Marathas c18.s29
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19. Total Revenue
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We do not know what was the total revenue of the Peshwa's government. Lord Valentia estimates it at Rs. 7,164,724.⁴⁸ But we do not know how far this figure is reliable, and upon what data it is based. Mr. J. Grant estimated the total revenue of the Maratha Empire at six crores towards the close of the 18th century. According to him the Peshwa's revenue "reckoning chout from the Nizam, Tippoo, and Bundlecund Rajputs, will be found to amount to at least three crores of rupees.⁴⁹" Mr. Elphinstone's estimate is more moderate. According to him the total revenue of the Peshwa's dominions, excluding Ahmedabad and the lands resumed from Bastin, amounted in December, 1815, to Rs. 9,671,735. He arrived at this figure after a detailed examination of the Peshwa's revenue⁵⁰ and he has supplied figures for every province and every district. These figures were compiled by him for the information of the Governor-General and his Council. And as he suggested in his covering letter these would be useful should occasion for territorial exchange ever arise. As Elphinstone was at Poona at the time and in close touch with the Peshwa's government we may accept his estimate as fairly accurate. He had no reason to give his superiors an exaggerated figure and in his estimate the Chauth naturally found no place. According to Lt.-Colonel Blacker, the Peshwa's "clear Revenue was two crores and ten lacs of rupees annually."⁵¹
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⁴⁸ Scott Waring, Hist. of the Marathas.
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⁴⁹ J. Grant, An Historical and Political View of the Deccan, London, 1798, pp. 23-24 and 26.
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⁵⁰ Unpublished papers in the Imperial Records Office, Calcutta, Secret papers, Nos. 42 & 43, 1816.
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⁵¹ Blacker, *Memoir of the Operations of the British Army in India*, p. 27.